In the 14-year period of 2005 through 2018, canines killed 471 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66% (311) of these deaths. Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers contributed to 76% of the total recorded deaths. | More »

Quebec Provincial Officials Signal Similar Pursuit

Montreal Seeks Ban Montreal, CA - On June 8, Montreal city officials, media members and the public recoiled in horror after a 55-year old woman was savagely killed by a neighbor's pit bull while in her own backyard. The nightmarish unprovoked attack that left Christiane Vadnais dead and first responders shaken to their core, occurred in Pointe-aux-Trembles, one of Montreal's 19 boroughs. Since this time, the cities of Quebec, Brossard and Montreal have announced their intentions to adopt a pit bull ban.

Quebec provincial officials have also announced their intention of a adopting a breed-specific bylaw province-wide by the end of this year.

The deadly attack of Christiane came just a few weeks after an investigation by La Presse showed that pit bulls were the primary offenders in serious attacks, causing the debate about dangerous dogs in Montreal to intensify. The end result was to establish a uniform set of rules for dangerous dogs across all 19 boroughs in Montreal by 2018. A breed-specific bylaw had not been ruled out at that time. Now in the wake of Christiane's death, city officials are resoundingly favoring a ban.

Humane groups in Montreal fired back with the same staggering deceptions and obfuscations about pit bulls as they do in the United States. Except that in many cities across the province of Quebec, no one is listening anymore. The horrific death of Christiane and preventing future deaths like hers outweighs the rights of a fringe group of dog owners -- pit bull owners. There are over 300 other dog breeds far more adapted to life in society today; so chose one is the prevailing logic.

Witnessing Historic Event Unfold

As the second most populace province in Canada turns its weight toward a breed-specific pit bull ban, second only to the province of Ontario, which has banned pit bulls since 2005, Americans are witnessing an historic event unfold. Canadian officials in Quebec are responding to the public outcry by placing the safety of their citizens first and foremost and also pointing to the excellent results Ontario achieved after adopting its ban; vicious attacks by pit bulls dropped dramatically.

The year before the Ontario ban went into effect, 2004, there were 168 pit bull bites in it's largest city of Toronto, by 2013 there were only 13.1

What is happening in the province of Quebec right now is a stunning contrast to the U.S., where many politicians -- and major media outlets too -- slink under tables at the very utterance of breed-specific legislation due to fear of being attacked by pit bull advocates. Even the CDC, our nation's "health protection agency," is not brave enough to take a stance in this area for American children. At least in parts of Canada, this sobering chart of U.S. fatal pit bull attacks is wholly unacceptable.

The chart is wholly unacceptable to DogsBite.org and our many dedicated supporters as well. We issued this chart last year when investigating the history of state preemption laws in the U.S. that bar local governments from enacting pit bull laws. The death chart shows that CDC abandoned this issue in 1998. Since that time, there has been a 560% increase in human deaths inflicted by pit bulls. The "American scene" of fatal pit bull attacks stands as a grave warning to all countries.

The FACT is no one needs a pit bull unless they are a dog fighter. No one will DIE without a pit bull. Someone already died because someone chose a pit bull, and more will die because someone else chose a pit bull. Ban the breed, end its deed. There is no need for pit bulls.

It's amazing to see how fast several Quebec cities are not going to tolerate pit bulls in their cities after only a couple of severe attacks. But here in the U.S. our humane orgs such as, Best Friends Animal Society, The Humane Society of the United States, ASPCA and legislators are turning our neighborhoods into killing fields for pit bulls.

I lived in Bavaria in Germany for over 3 years (my husband was stationed there) where they do not allow certain breeds of dogs, including Pit Bulls/Pit mixes and Rottweilers. It was nice to know that those dogs were not around. The military families would try to get around the breed ban by calling their dogs "lab mixes" or some other garbage. You have to go through a big lot of paperwork and USDA vet approval before your dog can fly overseas. If your dog was cleared on this side, but suspected to be a banned breed in Bavaria, your dog was immediately seized at the airport. I don't know if they were euthanized or returned to the U.S., but Germany doesn't mess around with BSL. I liked that part of Germany. It was PBFZ. Pit Bull Free Zone. Once we got to Colorado,it was a whole other story. There were PB's EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood.(Off Post) I HATED it. Once, we were on our porch with our 4 year old, and this guy was walking his unleashed, intact, male PB and the stupid dog ran right up onto the porch with us. I put myself between the dog and my daughter. His response was "oh, he's really friendly." Pfffffft! Yeah right! The worse part was that he had two very young beautiful little daughters with him. There were 2 PB's in the house directly behind us with a young boy and an infant.There were two huge, poorly trained PB's in a house across the street. I never went outside in that neighborhood unarmed. Sad, but true. I don't know what it is with military families, but they seem to have a higher ownership rate of bully breeds. Luckily, more military installations are enacting BSL to try to stop dangerous breeds from being housed on post.